As none other I know how problematic it is to discuss matters related to politics on the web. However, every now and then, there's no way around it, and this is one of those moments. There's this thing going on at airports in the US, and while many will see it as a separate issue, the body scanner issue, and the sad stories it has spawned, are symptoms of a far larger problem that is a direct threat to everything we've fought for during and since the Enlightenment.

I am puzzled, however, as to how they're going to scan my drive effectively when I've got it heavily encrypted?

I can answer to this one : they'll put you in jail until you give the key to them.

Heavy encryption that the police can't bypass easily was illegal in the US, last time I checked.

Back on the topic of plane security, this is exactly the reason why I never travel by plane unless forced to do so (as long as I travel in the EU, the train network is not bad if you don't mind some extra delays for long travels).

In a democratic society, people are innocents unless proven guilty. Without that kind of confidence, no government giving some kind of freedom to its citizens can work. But plane security is often the opposite of that.